TN to GC

A

arabbi5681

New Member
Hi,
I was born in Bangladesh and became Canadian since 2007. Prior to immigrating to Canada I was under H1B visa in the United States. I have recently finished my master degree in Computer Science online from an accredited U.S. university. Now I am trying to convince my employer to work from one of it's US branch and process my G.C. I know as a Canadian I can get TN visa for up to 3 years and then I need to renew my visa. I have done some investigation and found there are stages of this process which I mentioned as below. Do you know how long each stage takes. Is it possible to have all the stages done within 3 years?

Stage 1: PERM/Labor Certification Stage
Stage 2: I-140 Immigrant Petition Stage
State 3: I-485 Adjustment of Status Stage

I have also checked US consulate website bd.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/ and found below priority dates for employment based visa. Any idea which one I will fall under once my immigration process starts.

E3: 01 MAR 2016 (Skilled workers)
EW: 01 MAR 2016 (Un-Skilled Workers, their Spouse & Children)

Thanks
 
Make sure you read the following curiousGeorge post: http://forums.immigration.com/threa...am-appppprrrroooooveeedd.141272/#post-1041766

Have you been working for your current employer for >1 year? If so, you might be eligible for L1 status which might be better if your employer agrees to sponsor your GC.

Coming to the time it takes for various stages:

  1. PERM -- takes about 6-7 months to prep and ~5 months for a decision from DOL. http://forums.immigration.com/threads/tn-to-gc-a-timeline.325537/#post-2411596 has some more details on steps involved
  2. I140 -- processing time currently is ~4months but PP is available
  3. I485 times vary -- no fixed pattern there really
  4. Will you be in EB2 or EB3? Depends a lot on your education and/or experience. You will be in the ROW category
Good luck!
 
Thanks for the reply. I have working for the company for 4 years. I will be reading more on L1 status now. Since I have recently finished my master degree in computer science and I think I will fall into EB2 category.
 
Good luck. One good thing about L1 is that it allows for dual-intent so even if you have filed for immigrant visa, your L1 status can be extended w/o issue. Btw, Canadians are visa exempt so you will always hear the term 'status' e.g. TN status or L1 status (not visa)
 
Just so there is no misconception, while your initial TN may be for a 3 year period, there is no need to complete the GC process in 3 years. One can renew a TN indefinitely unless and until one has filed an I-485 (at which time they simply switch to EAD instead of TN).
 
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